Heaps of cars … missing trains ….. and Central Railway Station in colour

I missed the end of Central Railway Station by just a couple of months, and it was not for another decade that I stumbled across the place.

By then it had become a car park which I suppose was a bit of an insult although I guess most of those who parked up there thought it was a convenient use for that former grand terminus.

I can still remember marvelling at how impressive it still was with that giant wall of glass where the platforms almost ended.

Back then I mostly did black and white pictures and rarely did colour which is why most of my photographs of Central Railway Station are monochrome.

But occasionally I did venture into colour slides and recently began converting them into digital images.

Alas many suffered from over four decades in our cellar and the quality of them is iffy.

But there is enough to bring back to life that time in 1979 when armed with two cameras I wandered along the platforms, looking down on the parked cars and the slowly deteriorating remnants of station offices and other railway furniture.

Now there are plenty of pictures of Central after the trains left, but these are mine.

I have to confess that those I took in black and white are better, but here are some of the lost colour ones.

But  then as you do I decided to throw in some of the others and that really is it.

Location; Manchester Central Railway Station

Pictures; after the trains left, Manchester Central, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Twilight Sleep Home for painless child birth, a chance conversation and a story revealed

Now it is another one of those stories I thought had come to an end, but the Twilight Sleep Home at Westonby on Edge Lane has popped up again.*

Westonby is a big Edwardian pile on the edge of Chorlton which was built in 1903 and was grand enough to have been “cellared throughout contains three well-lighted entertaining rooms; billiard-room spacious hall, five bedrooms, box room, bathroom, and separate w.c, lavatory and w.c on ground floor, excellent kitchen, usual conveniences and large garden........ contains 3,074 square yards or thereabouts and has a frontage of about 200 feet on Edge Lane.”**

All of which made it an attractive place to live, but sometime around 1922 it had become the Old Trafford Twilight Sleep Home.  Not I grant you the zippiest of names and one with feint comic overtones  which opened a new field or research.  For on the same page of classified adverts was another Twilight Sleep Home on Upper Chorlton Road.

It is an odd name and takes you back to one of those fashionable medical practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and centred on the attempt to find a painless way for giving birth.

The standard approach had been to administer chloroform but in Germany experiements had been undertaken to see if women could give birth while asleep.  The mother was given a mix of morphine and scopolamine and early results were so promising that by the early 20th century the method had been adopted in the USA and Canada.

Our own Twilight Sleep Home opened in 1917 on Henrietta Street in Old Trafford and moved to Westonby sometime in 1921 or early 1922.  It advertised itself as offering “Painless Childbirth” and featured regularly in the classified section of the Manchester Guardian until 1927.  During those ten years it’s name varied slightly but always retained Twilight Sleep.

And last night in a chance conversation I discovered someone who had been there and given birth to a daughter.  The woman is now in her mid 90s and so this will place the birth sometime in the 1940s which was later than I had thought.

The Westonby home does not feature after 1927 but its competitor on Upper Chorlton Road was still advertsining in 1936 after which it too vanished.

The answer might lie in the loss of faith in the medical practice.  As early as 1915 there had been deaths associated with the method and much mainstream medical opinion was at best luke warm. There were also stories of poor quality care and an absence of trained doctors and nurses as well as horror stories of women having to be strapped to the birthing beds.

It may also be that Westonby was too small it had only eleven rooms.  Then there would have been the cost.  I don’t have any figures yet but such care would not have come cheap and even though some nursing homes catered for poorer clients it is hard to see that this was a first choice for all but the comfortably well off.

Add to this by 1948 the Nationa Health Service may have made such places redundant.

Of course the key will be a conversation with the mother and a trawl of the street directories. My friend also remembered another Twilight Sleep Home somewhere in Trafford.

I have a feeling that Westonby has still more to reveal.

Pictures; advert from the Manchester Guardian, 1905 and April 6 1926, and what might be Westonby from the collection of Averil Kovacs

* Westonby, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Westonby
**Sales advert Manchester Guardian, 1905

The Woolwich I remember

I like this picture of Woolwich for lots or reasons, but not least because it is how I remember it with the buses negotiating their way past the market stalls and the crowds out looking for a bargain or just enjoying an afternoon in the square.

I have tried dating it but so far it is a pretty wide slot which starts at 1939 and runs through into the 1950s.

That said I don't think it will be later than 1960.

The key will be the bus which someone far more an expert than me will be able to identify.

I know it is an RT which were built for London Transport from 1939 onwards but they remained in service for decades.

Likewise it might be possible to date the make of the car and work out when it was registered but cars like buses have a habit of staying on the road for years which just leaves the building to our left in the main picture and the style of the clothes.

The directories will pinpoint the shop but men’s clothes remained fairly uniform from the 1930s well into the early 60s which just leaves the woman and her hat in the corner.

There is no evidence of blackout or other signs to link it to the war.
and the tram lines are missing so that I think will narrow it to the 1950s, which is just that bit more exciting given that this was the period I could have been there.*

All of that said it is quite clearly from a time well before now and what draws me to the photograph is the sheer bustle and the way the photographer  caught a moment

Pictures; Woolwich circa 1930s-50s, courtesy of Steve Bardrick.

* I just now await someone to put me right on tram routes through Woolwich.

Fish and chips on Richmond Street

This is Richmond Street forty-seven years ago.

Back then I still used it as a cut through from Minshull Street down to Chorlton Street and for a decade was a place I knew well.

I had washed up in the College of Commerce a decade earlier doing an arts degree along side trainee lawyers, accountants and heaps of night school courses. The place had just become part of newly created Manchester Polytechnic, although it still felt like a separate entity miles from the other two colleges.

And that may have increased our sense of isolation or independence which led to its irreverent nickname of the College of Knowledge.

Sadly those not in the know called it ColCom.

That said in the late 1960s and 70s the students Union had hosted some memorable groups which added to our sense of feeling a tad special.

I don’t remember the fish and chip shop, but I will have fallen across the café on Chorlton Street, which was never as popular as Bert’s its close rival on Whitworth Street.

The Minshull Street Courts are still there, although they closed briefly just a decade after I took the picture.

But all those untrendy, traditional little outlets like the transport cafés have gone, and with it a bit of my youth.

Location, Richmond and Canal Street

Pictures; Richmond and Canal Street, 1979, from the collection of Andrew Simpson  

Dr. Cathreine Chisholm C.B.E. M.D. F.R.C.P. another story from Tony Goulding

Catherine Chisholm was the first woman (1) to obtain a medical degree from Manchester University which she received on Tuesday 28th July 1904.

Dr. Catherine Chisholm in 1912

She became a major force in the development of children’s medicine, particularly neo-natal care.

Catherine was born on 2nd January 1878 in Radcliffe Nr. Bury, Lancashire and was baptised in the town’s St. Thomas’s Church on 20th February 1878. She was the eldest of the four daughters of Kenneth Mckenzie, a physician and surgeon from Munlochy, Ross-shire, Scotland and his wife Mary (née Thornley) the eldest daughter of a local cotton manufacturer. 

Catherine lived her early life in Pilkington, Bury, Lancashire where her father had a surgery at Rock House, Stand Lane. She entered Owens College, Manchester University in 1895, being granted a B.A. degree in classics before entering the medical school. 

Following her graduation Dr, Chisholm’s found obtaining a post difficult as most hospitals remained reluctant to appoint female doctors. 

As a result, she had to move to London where she worked for a year at the Clapham Maternity Hospital, an institution which employed only women. In 1905 she was briefly the resident medical officer for the Eldwick Cottage Sanatorium for Women and Children, Bingley, Nr. Bradford, Yorkshire (West Riding). During 1906 Catherine returned to Manchester and started her own G.P. practice mainly treating female students at the university.   

Also in July 1908, she was appointed to a new post as Medical Inspector for the Manchester High School for Girls. a position she remained in 40 years. (2) For this purpose, she occupied a building at 339, Oxford Road, Manchester. This was to serve as the family home or the best part of two decades. Catherine lived here with her mother, Mary, (until her death on 6th July 1918) and her only surviving sister Alice Thornley. Her father had died on 23rd October 1902 and both her younger sisters died in infancy; Flora McDonald aged 2years and 6 months in 1883 and Eleanor aged 15 months in 1884.

Manchester Babies Hospital, Burnage Lane, Burnage (28/4/1924)

It was possibly these traumatic events in her early years which prompted her future work on the healthcare of babies and children in general. In any case she was the driving force behind the opening of The Manchester Babies Hospital (3) on 4th August 1914. 

Despite, an inauspicious opening date, the new facility thrived; initially at 77, Clarendon Road, Chorlton-on-Medlock, then on Slade Lane, Levenshulme before moving to accommodate the growing number of patients to larger premises, Cringle Hall, Burnage Lane, Manchester while retaining the original building on Slade Lane.

It was funded in part by Manchester Corporation and fund-raising efforts by local prominent women such as Olga Hertz, Sheila Simon, and Margaret Ashton, the latter being one of the institution’s vice-presidents while Mrs. Simon was the“chairman” of its committee.

Manchester Babies Hospital List of Officers 1916-17

Alongside her hospital work, Dr Chisholm was active in the promotion of the education of young mothers in health and hygiene as a preventative measure. She was also a pioneer in the development of women’s sport, according to her entry on Wikipedia this began when she was instrumental in the founding of the University of Manchester’s Women Students’ and Athletics’ Union in 1899.

Outside of Health, Catherine was also a supporter of women’s suffrage and involved in disarmament campaigns.

Besides addressing various meetings in support of these causes, she variously hosted meetings of the local society of National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies at her home on Oxford Road in November 1912 and June 1914, assisted in the establishment of a new Suffrage Club in Ancoats,   Manchester, and acted as the co-treasurer of the Manchester group supporting the nationwide “Pilgrimage for Peace” in 1926. 

N.U.W.S.S. Poster 1913

Dr Chisholm made a more direct appeal for peace when she addressed a meeting at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall on Monday 18th October 1920 which was convened to welcome a delegation of British women, including Dr. Chisholm, returning from investigating the impact of the war in Ireland. After the women had reported back on the material damage and some graphic descriptions of the behaviour of Britain’s irregular soldiers (“The Black and Tans”) she proposed the following motion, which was subsequently passed.

 “That this meeting of Manchester citizens urges the government to set free all Irish political prisoners and offer a truce, during which all armed forces shall be withdrawn and the keeping of order be placed in the hands of the Irish local elected bodies- thus creating conditions under which the Irish people may determine their own form of government.”

 Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Dr Chisholm continued to lecture widely on medical issues and speak out on social issues. Her interests were varied, warning against overindulgence in tea and coffee, opposition to aggressive advertising aimed at young men by the brewery industry, promoting the importance of fresh air in the care of babies and exercise for schoolchildren, particularly girls among others. She was particularly keen that girls should be educated about their reproductive system.

  In pursuing these affairs, she was quick to embrace the new opportunity available through radio broadcasts.

 In the George V New Year’s Honours list of 1935, she was awarded the C.B.E. citing her rôle as consulting physician at the Manchester Northern Hospital for Women and Children.

  Also in January 19355, she was one of the inaugural signatories in the formation of a Manchester branch off the National Council for Civil Liberties. She was also a member of the Manchester Gaels and the Soroptimists.

 Catherine was certainly a local celebrity in much demand to appear at fundraising events, especially for child welfare and medical charities. There was, however, a downside to her fame as she became an early victim of “identity theft”. The Manchester Evening News of 11th May 1936 reported the case of an Ardwick woman, Mary Fellows, who was imprisoned for 6 weeks at Manchester Magistrates Court; she had obtained  three meals on credit by pretending she was Dr. Chisholm and saying she was short of cash as she was hurrying to perform an operation. In her evidence Catherine stated that, “she knew Fellows quite well and had had trouble with her for many years, through posing and ordering things in her name.”

Catherine never married and continued living with her sister on Oxford Road before moving to 34, Broadway, Didsbury, Manchester in 1923. She died there on Monay 21st July 1952 and was cremated at Manchester Crematorium on Thursday 24th July. Her sister Alice Thornley predeceased her on 15th February 1945. 

Dr Chisholm’s estate was valued at £17,790 -9s –3d (equal to £449,650 today).

Pictures: -Dr. Catherine Chisholm (1912) portrait, unknown artist m 72643 and Manchester Babies Hospital, Burnage Lane, Burnage Manchester City Council’s City Engineers Departmentm 52817 images courtesy of Manchester Libraries. Creative Commons Attribution International (CC BY 4.0) licence, Manchester Babies Hospital List of Officers 1916-17, 'Image provided by The John Rylands Research Institute and Library, The University of Manchester’  N.U.W.S.S. Poster 1913 in public domain. By NUWSS - Original publication: published by the NUWSS in 1913 in the UK. Immediate source: British Library http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/makeanimpact/suffragettes/large12625.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45443664

Notes: -

1) Dr. Chisholm shared this distinction with another woman Dr Catherine Corbett, who herself has a fascinating story which I hope to write of in a future post.

2) Catherine’s sister Alice Thornley was also a member of staff at Manchester High School for Girls; she taught French there for more than twenty years and was also the school’s medical clerk.

3) The Manchester Babies Hospital was renamed The Duchess of York Hospital in 1935. This honour was bestowed after she had opened a new nurses’ home and a medical wing on 10th July 1935. The Duchess, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon soon become George VI's queen consort and on his death was for 50 years simply "The Queen Mother".

Ghosts in Chorlton .... on Wilbraham Road

Now I have Sonoe Shimizu to thank for this picture of what was once the chemist on the corner of Wilbraham and Albany Roads.

Ghost chemist and future coffee shop, 2025

And the ghost sign announcing “Dispensing Chemist” has been hidden for a very long time.

That said the property has always been a chemist dating back to the beginning of the 20^th century.

Originally the entire row of shops known as Highfield which runs from Albany Road to Keppel Road had been private dwellings fronted by small gardens with access to the houses by a short flight of steps.

And some of the shops including our chemist were still on two levels with the rear of premises raised above the shop floor.

Mr. Flint's chemist shop, circa 1910

Highfield, I suspect had been planned and built as town houses with an eye to attracting residents who wanted to use the new Chorlton Railway Station which offered a quick service to and from central Manchester.

The first conversions in Highfield from residential to business use were in place by 1903, but the chemists were a little later, and by 1909 it is listed as belonging to “Francis B Flint Chemist”.

Shopping at the chemist in 1935

In its time it has been a Co-op Chemist and briefly one of the Everest chain, but as the new window signage indicates it is to become a coffee shop.

And that really is it, other than to thank Sonoe who sent me the images with the message, "Hi Andrew, I live locally in Chorlton and saw this this morning. It’s opposite Morrisons. Thought you might be interested”, which of course I was.

I too had been following the conversion work but never chose to look up and spot the ghost sign.

So there is a lesson for me.

The promise of change, 2025

The signage is a fine example of how shops once advertised their business and I hope they retain it.

And for those puzzled over the term ghost sign, it refers to products,  descriptions of businesses and individuals which longer exist

Location; Wilbraham Road

Pictures; ghost signs on Wilbraham Road, courtesy of Sonoe Shimizu, and in its former glory around 1910 from the Lloyd Collection and in 1935 A.H. Clarke, m18231 respectively, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information, and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

  

That remarkable painting of Eltham Palace .........

I like this water colour of Eltham Palace by my old friend Peter Topping.

The painting, 2025

Like many people I continue to be fascinated by Eltham Palace along with the Tudor Barn, its more humble companion just down the road.

So, if you grew up in Well Hall and were interested in history then these two old buildings were special.

Back in the 1960s the Palace was only open on Thursdays and Sundays which meant timing a visit to the school holidays or a Sunday.

But admission was free and from May to October the doors were open from 11am to 7pm and in the winter from 11am till 4, which gave plenty of scope to wander the Great Hall and indulge in shock and awe, made all the more so when I discovered the Palace's history and its place in Shakespeare's plays.

The guide book, 1958

All of which meant I could often be found on Thursday afternoons standing below the great wooden roof letting my imagination roll away.

Later still as I became less interested in the doing's of royalty and more in the lives of those who worked to keep the posh people happy I started to explore what it meant to be a kitchen servant, a laundry woman or the man in charge of the cole house.

Not an easy piece of research but I was helped by a delightful little book from the Ministry of Works published in 1958 for one shilling which acted as the "Official Guide-book [to] Eltham Palace Kent" 

Not that the author "D.E. Strong, M.A., D.Phil, formerly Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monument" gave any time in his description to our kitchen servant,  laundry woman or the man in charge of the cole house, but in the back of the book there are two plans based on the work of John Thorpe, who was the Elizabethan surveyor.

And there amongst all the important state rooms are the places that kept the Palace working, from the Slaughter House, Cole House, Pastry, Spicery and "My Lord's Butry"

The plan, 1958, based on the two Elizabethan plans

Too which I can add that series of fine line drawings of the Palace in a state of decay in the 18th century when it was a home to cows and other live stock which appear from time to time on the blog.

All of which is a far cry from Peter's painting made all the more remarkable because he is from Preston, has lived in Manchester for half a century and only knows of the palace's existence because I wax lyrical about the place on cold winter evenings in the Horse and Jockey, that Inn on the Green.

And just as Peter left Preston, I left Well Hall for Manchester in 1969,but still miss Eltham, its Palace and the Progress Estate where I gew up.

So much so that everyso often Peter comes up with another painting of home.* 

Painting; Eltham Palace, Peter Topping www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk

Pictures; Plan and front cover from Eltham Palace Kent, Ministry of Works Official Guide-book, 1958

*Painting Well Hall and Eltham, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Painting%20Well%20Hall%20and%20Eltham